Creating a “Bounty Table” using what you already have…

It was a rainy/chilly Saturday morning, and I woke up feeling like I wanted to go shopping.

It was like my urge to create a Pinterest worthy dining room table was far outweighing my very responsible budget mentality. The alter-ego on my shoulder was like “So what. It’s just $50 or so. We’ll even use a coupon.” This is a tad weird for me because I’m pretty minimalist by nature. I’m sensitive to clutter as it makes me feel drained, therefore I keep things organized and repurpose and reuse as often as possible. Still sometimes I start to feel a sense of lack; and being a product of modern society, I start to feel like I need to prove to myself otherwise by purchasing items that I feel in the moment as what I need in order to “save me”.

I’ve grown to be very smart with my money after spending the majority of my 20’s blowing it all on expensive things in an attempt to create myself the wrong way. Having lived that way and it getting me nowhere, I set out over a decade ago to live a more simple life. This means that I can now recognize that that $50 spent on seasonal décor that gets packed away 10 months out of the year is not money well spent. Plus, odds are that $50 would have turned into $56, or $156 because it’s easy to get caught up and stores are designed to get you caught up. Trying to beat down my inner consumption monster is when I had my idea of creating a Bounty Table came to me.

The challenge to myself was that I create a table-scape using what I already had, or what I can get from nature. I could use Pinterest as inspiration if I wanted to, but not as a checklist for me to enter a store to purchase from. Believe me, the temptation was all around me as I had to go to the barn later that day and in one straight drive I would be passing a Pier 1, not one but two Marshalls, a TJ Maxx, a Homegoods, SteinMart, Target, Boscov’s, Dollar Tree, Christmas Tree Shop, Kirklands, assorted boutiques, and a Michaels. The struggle was real.

The second reason I wanted to create a Bounty Table is to show myself that my family and I have plenty as it was without running to the store. It was a day before grocery day and I was starting to feel blah and like I didn’t have enough. But with an inventory and a rearrangement of the refrigerator, plus the table nicely curated, it was possible to prove to myself that the lack mentality was all in my head. Just as lack mentality usually is.

Below is the video of me putting together my Bounty Table. I also share two other resources that I follow in keeping a simple and nurturing home, which in turn helps me to practice a simple and nurturing mindset; Marie Kondo of the konmarie Method and YouTuber Mandi of SweetlyHome. Specifically this video of hers but make sure that you check out all of her The Life Giving Home series.